Well, after 3 weeks of packing, moving, unpacking, hunting things down, etc. I'm back! I wrote a few posts while I was offline so here they are:
Friday 31st December 2010,
Hello from Preston! We're settling well. Hubs and I are taking a break to enjoy a spot of nothing much while eating cake and chocolate.
Moving went okay. Could have been a lot better. The company we chose had quoted us £300 for the move, we amended our list (added more stuff) and they didn't ring us to update it. Get to Thursday morning, sitting there waiting, nothing to do, 9:30 comes and goes, still no guys and a van.....10am....I ring the man "oh, the boys didn't get back from London until early this morning, they're just emptying the van and will be there within the hour." 11 am..... "they're on their way!" a bit past 11 and a "movers van" turns up, the guys mention something about how they were told to come and help and were told it was only a small job. 80 boxes later they rang for help! 1pm Jo, Dad, ferrets, dog and myself head off for Preston, Dad needed to be gone by 2pm so we left a set of keys with the guys to lock up after us. Few hours later they turn up in Preston, 5 men, 2 vans (1 transit, 1 large box van), their head guy is with them and explains that the guy we booked with had asked them to do it and so it was now their contract and they wanted more money, in cash no less! So, we discuss it a bit with them and Jo heads off to get some money out.
The men move us in, filling rooms with boxes and furniture and bags. I ring the first man and get told that he was going to put it up to £400, fair enough we think...tell this to head man "oh no! far too low!" After they finally get everything in we discuss money, he says if we'd used them in the first place it would have been nearer £800, but as we were quoted lower and so had nowhere near that amount of cash he settled on £495. End of this little tale: do not use "Happy Days Removals" in Blackburn for moving your whole house contents. I was informed they only own a Transit van and by our reckoning that would have been 6+ trips to do the job!
So, everything is now in, some rooms are less passable than others. I do like the house though! The garden/yard needs work but I'll leave that until it's a bit warmer outside I think.
Jo had a chat with the man on our right and he's told us a bit about the area and the landlord ("pillock" was used), burglary is an issue here so we've made sure the downstairs windows are locked and will remember to lock the doors as we use them.
So, what the house like do you ask? Great! Only two main levels this time which made the removal guys happy(!) We have a cellar too, the ferrets are settled in there and got their first play time today, much bottle-brushing of tails and general poofing of fur to look big incase anything scary came out! They soon realised it was safe and happy wardancing and running ensued. We're getting a big chest freezer soon that's (hopefully) going to go down there too. There is a sort of.....cubby separated down there but it's full of junk so we need to ask the landlord if we can get that removed then we can store our moving boxes in there and I'll have somewhere to keep the kibble. There's also the gas an electric meters, the gas is pre-pay, this took some getting organised but we now have it and have even fathomed the boiler.
Up the cellar steps is the kitchen, a bit pokey but lots of cupboards, no drawers which has caused us to problem-solve a little. It does have more surface than Tod but alas, electric hobs! The washing machine fits nicely and I may even do some laundry tomorrow, I know where the airer is and the laundry liquid. From the kitchen are two doors; the first goes to the back yard, in said yard is a mainly paved area, a raised bed and an outside toilet, The raised bed has a holly tree and two other trees in it that need a bit of a trim. There's also the door to the back alley that allows me to take the wheely bin out for the binmen.
Back to the kitchen and the other door, this takes us to the dining room, a nice big room with built in drawers/shelves unit to one side of the chimney breast, the ceilings are 12 feet up and there are 4 shelves up to that, the top two are rather inaccessible normally so we've put some boxes of things we won't unpack up there out of the way. The bottom two are currently empty. We've put the cutlery in one of the drawers, just the right size for our cutlery tray infact. I'm claiming the drawers if I can for my fabric stash.
From the dining room to the hallway, this leads to the front door, stairs to 1st floor and the lounge. I love the lounge! We're sitting in it and it's pretty much sorted. I have my PC in here, tucked down the side of the sofa, Dad gave us a monitor arm and with a little shelving adjustment and a G-clamp I can now sit and PC instead of having a laptop. We've placed some super-long shelf planks across the firebreast between shelving either side and the DVD's are unpacked. We know where the books are but where they will go remains to be fathomed. The full three piece suite is installed, the telly and the fish. We're all very glad we moved the fish on Wednesday! We packed the car full and brought them over, they've taken Jo's mini-walls (3 bricks high) and some planks to hold their tank and are happily set up under the firebreast shelving. It looks really good. Pippa also has her bed in the living room, she has her "day bed" and her crate with it's curtain, her little den where she can go if it all gets too much. Right now she's fast asleep.
Up the stairs! Immediately ahead is the spare room, this will be kept fairly clear for guests and features the futon, a bedside table and soon the spare telly, VCR and dressing table. Round the corner is the back bedroom, our bedroom, just the bed in here and a bedside table, it's a nice size and will be used solely for bed things (sleeping and the other thing). Along the landing is the bathroom, well, shower room actually, it's a shower cubicle, a toilet and a sink. It also has one of those bizarre waste things...the waste pipe is actually at the back of the house while the shower is at the front so it's got an electric box under the toilet that seems to have a blade in it and a motor and it mushes up the waste to shove it down a smaller pipe to the waste pipe, works well but takes some getting used to, especially as it regularly empties, including while you're....occupied shall we say. Just to the left of the loo is the final room, the front bedroom, Jo's study.
This is, I think, the biggest room and will be Jo's study and the dressing room. We put the wardrobe up today and the chest of drawers is in there atleast. The light fitting disintegrated on us today, the springs and contacts just fell out so we're going to ring the landlord and okay getting and fitting a new one, for now we have a lamp in there that is surprisingly effective. In here, when we're sorted, will be Jo's gaming stuff, his desk, his two PC's, my desk, the wardrobe and the chest of drawers. Possibly also the rug.
So, that's our house. The road is a fairly busy one but not 24/7 traffic and no real big vehicles. We have a B&Q and a Wickes within 5 minute walk, also the bus stop, the local vets (also the emergency vet for the area), a pharmacy, the park and several GP's.
Madam and I took a walk to the park this afternoon, she's doing okay for her first move with us, she did follow me *everywhere* yesterday (including the smallest room), she was so certain we would just vanish or something. So today, when she hadn't eaten for over 24 hours and was suffering the indigestion that goes with I took her for a walk, after she saw we could go walkies and come back she agreed to some dinner and has most of it over the day, she's also feeling secure enough to go wondering the house on her own and not howl when I go down to check the ferrets, or the loo for that matter! Although I do get a very happy pounce when I appear again, just to make sure I don't forget she loves me. The ferrets don't really care, they have eachother and their cage and bedding so they're happy. The fish are in their tank, nowt new here.
Yes, I think I shall like it here, the people in this terrace are apparently lovely and they seem to be so far. Madam has wheedled at the dog behind and it has wheedled back to her satisfaction.
Soon I shall have time to craft! Right now I'm suffering a lack of enthusiasm/restfulness and also a lack of happy skin on my hands, all the washing them and dust and general stress (only mild, but still stress) has upset the eczema somewhat so I can't really knit/crochet as the yarn catches.
Anyway, I shall stop boring you! Happy New Year!
Friday 7th Jan 2011
Jacqui:0 Oven:1
With the new house comes a new oven, without a manual. Today I tried to bake bread....I sort of succeeded. The dough was alright, could have done better but cold kitchen+lack of yeast = not well risen. Anyhoo, shaped it into rolls and left them for a second rise....or lack of... Ladies and Gentlemen, the world's smallest rolls! They truly are, oh well.
Next came understanding the oven, now this oven is a tad unusual, to raise the temperature it puts the grill on. Fair enough, but if you don't know this and put things in on the top shelf as soon as the "heating" light goes out you end up with burnt buns, not too badly because I spotted the red glow but still, not funny oven!
It's been a busy time since my last writing, we have a usable: lounge, kitchen, study and bedroom. The dining room needs clearing a bit more (read: selling the coffee+lamp tables on EBay) and the box room is waiting for me to be arsed. The cellar is pretty much usable by the furballs but I would like to give it a good sweep, that's waiting for Fred to feel better, he and I came down with a cold this week so he's been in his own cage with food and water dishes right next to his bed and I've been managing the house.
I'm currently sitting here waiting on the landlord, never tell your landlord you'll be in all day, they will make you wait all day! It's 2:47pm and I have neither seen him or had a call from him, rather maddening really. Why is he coming? Because the study light fitting doesn't work. When we moved in there was no bulb so we shrugged and the day after moving in went to install a bulb...hubbie pushes the bulb in, can't get it to twist, lowers bulb and is showered by small pieces of brass. The connections and the springs just fell out! We put a standing lamp in there and yesterday hubbie got a new fitting, we were just going to stick it in...fat chance! There's more than the usual number of wires, so I wired it in as the last one had been, we turned the power back on at the fuse box and *bang pop!*, so that's now screwed to the ceiling with all the wires disconnected and pointing away from eachother, the landlord is coming to wire it in and make it work, I hope.
We had our first post of the year today, nothing forwarded which is rather concerning. We have things we know are in the system but they're not here. I would ring Royal Mail but I'm leaving it just now. You see, the newsagent rang me today asking if the house was still for rent, we're meeting tomorrow for her to look round and maybe say yes, either way I'm going to the house in Tod so I can check for signs of mail there.
Not much going on here really, Jo's enjoying his new job so far and will have almost all of Thursday off which is nice, he's also going to be able to claim expenses for his train fare to Blackburn twice a week when he teaches some Muslim A-Level students which he seems to really like.
The dog is settling well, the ferrets are settled and the fish are fine. Rumble the ferret made a bid for freedom on Wednesday, I'd left the top door of the cage open by accident and he has no fear of heights so he'd jumped out and was enjoying the cellar, he climbed up the stairs and started to dig at the door, doglet was going crazy at the cellar door, I opened it a little to find a Rumble looking at me. No animals were hurt fortunately. Pippa has a very intense curiosity with the ferrets and they with her so it's rather hard to separate them sometimes. Barry despises Pippa and will hiss, fluff up and bite her given a chance, Rumble wanted to climb on her head! Mad furballs of all sizes.
My crafting mojo is returning but undirected. I want to knit something but I don't know what, I have no internet so I can't browse Rav for inspiration. While I wait for the epiphany to strike my brain I'm working on the granny blanket I started last year, in greens, purples and yellow, it looks great but working it hurts my hands at the moment so it's going at a snail's pace. I do have a lace knit to do but enthusiasm evades me.
Anyway, I'm going to go do *something*
Later peeps.
Saturday 8th January 2011
Huzzah! We have a tenant. The newsagent was happy with the size of the place and to pay the rent as it stands, she's also mentioned the posibility of being able to buy it should they sell the shop and we said yes. So, 4-6 weeks from now that'll be sorted, she's waiting on the people who are taking over the shop to set a date and we need to organise too. We need to:
Get gas and electric certificates sorted
Get the place cleaned
Get a "yes you can" stamp from the Council.
Once all that's sorted then that's the mortgage covered and Jo just has to earn the costs of this house. Once the internet is up I can start hunting too, maybe find a job I like as much as Jo likes his. I had honestly forgotten how nice it is to have a happy husband! He sleeps better, he laughs and jokes more and he's happier to help me with the housework, it's lovely. He doesn't have to go to bed at 8pm to be up for 4am so we get time together in the evenings, he gets most of Thursday off so we can spend time together then too. Bliss!
We also have.....Sunshine! Not being in the steep sided valley that is Portsmouth, Yorkshire we get sun all year round here and it's nice to come down in the late morning to see it on the living room floor. Come summer Madam may even be able to cook herself in the living room which she'll like because then she can watch me and cook, most important the watching of the humans. She's still got full roaming rights in the house, and now a bed in the study so when I'm painting models and Jo is on his PC she can come sleep up there.
Crafting wise the crochet blanket is growing slowly and I have a mindless lace knit that I do a row of every so often. It's Camilla Flower Petal Shawl from the Elann website and once set up it gets rather dull I'm afraid, you spend a lot of time just counting, so it's not telly knitting because I have to count but it's not full on concentration knitting either, hence the dullness. Still, it should look lovely when it's done and I only have 29 more rows before the fishtail points anyhoo, only just getting to the end of my first ball too so it should be fine! (I hope)
Anyhoo, not much else to report really, life goes on, the dog does her wheedles (we left her for 7 hours today, oops!), the ferrets are all fine and the fish are as active as ever.
Later peeps.
